Page 48 of Beneath the Midnight Sky
Me: Are you home?
Rowan: Yeah, little angel. What’s up?
I didn’t respond, and another one came through after a few minutes.
Rowan: Is everything okay?
I still didn’t respond. There was no point. This was a last-ditch effort and a result of my having nowhere else to go. I wasn’t staying with him because it’s where I wanted to be.
That was at least what I’d keep repeating to myself as I held onto my anger and ignored everything else running through my head about the shit show I called my life.
23
GROVELING CAMPAIGN
Rowan
The momentI’d gotten Aspen’s text, I’d cleaned my hand, unwrapping it, and then began staring at my phone screen for what felt like years when I finally heard a car pull up in my driveway. Racing to the door, I threw it open to find Aspen climbing out of Ivy’s green bug.
“Yeah, I’ll call you later,” she told her. Aspen said something else I couldn’t hear, but she pointed over toward me and then closed the car door. Ivy was staring at me through her windshield. It was clear she was nervous, and I immediately felt even more guilty than I was already feeling.
I knew what I’d done to Aspen was wrong, and I didn’t even have a good excuse past wanting to love her and take care of her. Nothing she’d screamed at me in the bar had been true—she was a strong, incredible woman. She wasn’t weak in the least, and I planned on spending the rest of my life proving to her that I meant every word of it.
Part of me wanted to just show her the damn tattoo—as if that would just prove to her that I was all in this with her for theright reasons. But somehow that didn’t feel like the right move either.
Aspen climbed the steps and walked past me into the house. I awkwardly waved to Ivy and turned to follow her inside. She stopped in the living room and just stood there, looking around. Something was wrong—something beyond what happened with us. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew.
“What’s going on, little angel?” I asked carefully.
She didn’t speak for a full minute, only to turn and look at me, expressionless. “You have a guest room, right?”
“Uh, yeah, but why would you need it?” I asked, confused.
I could tell she had her guard up. It was like when we’d first met, only worse. Probably because she had a reason not to trust me now. The only thing I couldn’t make sense of was why she’d come here if she didn’t trust me.
“So where is it?” she asked, ignoring my question completely.
“Can we talk about this, please? You don’t need my damn guest room, Aspen.” I could feel my anger rising, and I hated it. I valued my ability to keep my cool in just about any situation, but she wasn’t talking to me, and I knew something more was going on other than our fight at The Roadhouse.
“No. No, we can’t. You lost that right when you invaded my past, my home, and crossed so many damn boundaries—” she released a long breath. “Now, where the fuck is the guest room, Rowan? Or should I just start looking for myself?” She sounded angry and tired. I stared at the ground for a few seconds, letting out a deep breath to try to wrangle my temper back in. I knew fighting with her wasn’t going to help anything. She needed sleep, and then I’d make her talk to me tomorrow.
“Come on,” I finally said. I walked up the stairs and stopped across the hall from my room. Opening the door, I let her walk in first. This was one of the few spaces I’d let Payton help me decorate. It was set up as a guest room. A queen-size bed sat inthe middle of the left wall. It was made of whitewashed wood and had an olive-green bedspread, with matching white side tables and a dresser on the opposite side wall. The windows matched the ones in my room, large rectangles, only these had sheer olive-green curtains that matched the blankets. “This is it. There’s no bathroom, but there is one down the hall if you need it. You already know, but my room is the next door down if you need anything and want to talk,” I trailed off, not sure what else to say.
“Okay, thanks,” she muttered and walked out of the door frame to leave me space to get the fuck out—at least that’s how it felt. I wanted to scoop her up and take her to my bed, to refuse to let her leave until she talked to me. But I knew that wouldn’t result in what I wanted. So instead, I just nodded and gave her space, letting her close the door behind me.
By eleven that night,I was chomping at the bit to see her. Knowing she was in my house but just out of reach was a new sort of torture I hadn’t yet endured. So, I tossed and turned in my bed for another three hours before deciding to finally call it quits. If she wasn’t going to come into my room, I’d just go to her.
I slid out of bed, sliding on a pair of black boxer briefs, and quietly left my room. I stood outside her door for a moment, trying to listen and see if she was awake or not before I went barging in. Quietly opening the bedroom door when I heard nothing, I was pleased to find it was unlocked at least. She was lying on her side, facing the windows, curled up into a ball. Seeing her like that had my heart clenching. I wanted nothingmore than to understand where her head was at and what caused it to go there.
Pressing the door closed behind me, I walked over and slowly shifted the blankets so I could slide in behind her. I left my boxers on, not trying to force her even more than I’m sure this would. Curling up behind her, I gently placed my arm around her waist, pulling her back to my front and burying my face in her hair.
She still smelled like paint and what I was starting to think was jasmine. One day I’d ask her, but right now, I was just pleased that she seemed to relax in my arms.
“I don’t remember inviting you in here, cowboy,” she whispered, her voice groggy with sleep.
I chuckled softly. “You didn’t, but I couldn’t stay away, little angel,” I whispered back.
“I’m still mad at you, so don’t misunderstand. When we wake up, I’m going back to being angry. You’re gonna grovel, and you’re going to do so quite a bit. But…it’s been a long night, and I just want to feel safe,” she said, her voice sounding more and more broken as she spoke. “So you can stay—for now.”
